Annual volumes of smart payment and banking cards shipped are forecast to increase from 1.1 billion in 2011 to 3.5 billion in 2017. This is one of the conclusions from IMS Research’s report The World Market for Payment and Banking Cards – 2012 Edition.

“In terms of volumes, the payment and banking card market is the second-largest smart card market and this is forecast to continue to be the case over the next five years,” stated Don Tait, senior analyst at IMS Research’s Financial and ID Technology Group and the report’s author. “That being said, the proportional importance of specific geographical markets is forecast to change during this time.

China is going to be one of the biggest markets for smart cards. The People’s Bank of China announced in March 2011 that it’s converting China’s debit and credit payment cards to smart cards. Also, all financial institutions in China must be ready to issue financial smart cards by January 2013.

“By 2015, all new cards in issuance will be smart-card based,” Tait said. “This will have a significant impact on the number of smart payment and banking cards shipped in China from 2013 to 2016. In 2016, the number of smart payment and banking cards shipped in China is projected to increase to 1.3 billion (or two-fifths of total world shipments).”

The U.S. smart card market is also expected to grow in the next five-years. The installed base of smart payment and banking cards is projected to increase to 935 million by the end of 2017.

“The U.S. is the world’s second-largest market for payment and banking cards (magnetic stripe as well as smart cards) by volume,” Tait said. “It is also the world’s largest market in terms of card expenditure. Until recently, the U.S. was the only mature country to have not committed to EMV migration. However, the announcements by Visa Inc., in August 2011 and MasterCard in January 2012 will help to kick start EMV migration in the U.S.

The IMS Research report The World Market for Payment and Banking Cards – 2012 Edition examines these issues in detail, along with presenting forecasts for more than 50 individual countries. The report also provides a discussion on different products, implementations, technologies and standards as well as presenting the market by card type (credit, debit, prepaid, ATM-only), authentication type (SDA, DDA, CDA), IC shipments plus much more.